Teaching the Word of God

"...Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10)

God had allowed Satan to take Job's wealth and kill all of his children. Now Satan was allowed to "smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head."

(Job 2:7). What adversity! Here is Job, having lost so much, sitting among the ashes in humility and in great pain, scraping his sore boils with a potsherd. Even his wife saw him as nothing but a pathetic loser; "Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!' But he said to her, 'You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?' In all this Job did not sin with his lips.'" (Job 2:10)

We all experience adversity from time to time. Maybe not as much as Job, but life can be very difficult. Sometimes we are tempted, as Job certainly was, to question God's goodness and/or His ability to help us. Job wasn't perfect, but he was a godly man. God said so; "The Lord said, 'Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." (Job 1:8). Dealing with adversity is especially hard when you feel like God is against you and you don't know why.

Like Job, Naomi also suffered much adversity, recognizing that God had afflicted her, but not understanding why; "She said to them, 'Do not call me Naomi (pleasant); call me Mara (bitter), for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.'" (Ruth 1:20) Yet to their credit, both Job and Naomi continued to trust God and seek His will. Sometimes God's plan for us seems overwhelming and without purpose. But as His children, our responsibility is to continue to trust and obey Him.

The truth is that there are no chance happenings. Even when things make no sense to us, God is in total control. And everything He does is with purpose and for our good; "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28).

So even in times of adversity, we don't lose heart; "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39).